Plant Sales Representative

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited institution.
• Employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States.  Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.  Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience working in a manufacturing environment.
• Minimum of 1 year customer facing experience in a customer service, sales, or production control/planning role.
• Must be highly proficient with Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.  MS Access and Excel Pivot Table knowledge desired.
• Effective oral and written communication skills are mandatory
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram or schedule form.
• Mastery of basic cost and math skills applicable to commercial transactions.  Applies percentages, ratio, and analysis as required.
• Mechanical aptitude
• Self starting, detail oriented person capable of planning and managing a portfolio of customer projects.
• Strong interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Ability to quickly form productive relationships so as to “get things done” both internally and at the customer.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

This position will be located in our Plant 3, Whitehall Casting Operation and is the on-site representative for an assigned customer account portfolio.  This position acts as a customer service advocate, both as primary plant contact for customer specific issues and primary customer contact for plant specific issues.  Key responsibilities include purchase order management, quotation management, forecast maintenance and coordination/resolution of open items associated with his/her account portfolio. The negotiation of commercial issues, as well as the formulation, maintenance and communication of key customer projects internally and externally is an important facet of this position.  The Plant Sales Representative must also strive to attain and enhance customer relationships.  Responsibilities include:

• Owners of “portfolio” of customer accounts—front line eyes, ears, and voice for customer issues
• Manage and Coordinate an assigned customer account portfolio.  This includes: All forecasting of firm and anticipated requirements (Support the Demand Planning Process, EBS maintenance, monthly and budget/LRP); Manage and process all purchase orders and changes to orders; Manage the quotation process; Resolution of open items; Coordination of activities with Customer Account Managers and Field Sales
• Purchase Order Management - Internal owner of managing customer orders. This includes:  Processing orders and changes to orders; Validating data in EBS; Facilitating timely PO reviews/system approvals; Access and correlation with customer systems/websites; Communicating and resolving exception to orders, Negotiation of customer schedules.
• Quotation Management - Owner of the quotation process.  This includes: Receiving and Processing RFQ’s; Coordinating and facilitating the internal review process; Obtaining accurate costs; Formulate quoting strategies and prepare quotations; Presentation for review internally and externally to the customer.
• Negotiate commercial issues which arise in normal course of business.  This includes: Pricing and quoting issues; Changes to customer ship schedules; Process and design changes; Coordination of customer development programs.
• Support location on all customer matters which may: (1) Impact customer relations (2) Delay on time input or shipment of customer requirements (3) Impact shipments and/or sales forecast, such as customer push-outs, concession activity, credit or payment problems and any purchase order issues.
• Integral part of formulating, maintaining and communicating customer projects.  Communicate to customers and internal colleagues on open items and key projects
• Drawing and specification routing and follow up
• Coordinate with Planning and Manufacturing to communicate delivery recovery plans and issues
• Assist in the coordination of customer visits
• Assist Quality, Engineering and Field Sales with customer return activity
• Provide back up as necessary for non-assigned customer accounts
• Assists in managing Account Receivable balances (coordinate with Accounts Receivable Dept., Account Managers and Customers to resolve open items)
• Maintain and enhance customer relationships 

Job Roles

• Liaison--connects customers to the enterprise; furnishes customer information to planning and execution functions and relevant information to customers, creating continuous feedback loops; negotiates between stakeholder groups as needed
• Facilitator--ensures timely processing and booking of customer orders; sets expectations and deadlines; follows up with stakeholder groups; seeks status toward fulfillment; provides fuel to keep things moving and establish momentum
• Relationship and communication--interacts with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders; facilitates communication and information exchange between stakeholders; speaks the language of the business and the language of the customer; protects interests such as IP, yet advocates for the customer; emphasizes common goals; builds rapport
• Organization and structure--detail and follow through oriented; adheres to systems and timelines; handles significant data input; monitors inputs and feedback; creates backups and manages documentation; facilitates access through technology
• Completion oriented--knows when and where to get information that ultimately informs delivery; every interaction points toward understanding capability and fulfilling commitments to customers
• Service and responsiveness--first point of contact for feedback; helps internal stakeholders perform better with customer insights; helps external stakeholders by providing their internal voice; thinks critically and prioritizes well; timely in response and action
• Business awareness--understands commercial strategy and processes that support it; recognizes role and contribution toward critical metrics such as revenue and margin; manages short- and long-term projects
• Influence--persuades without direct reporting authority; willing to have tough conversations; operates with a global mindset and demonstrates cultural sensitivity; individualizes and customizes to achieve outcomes